The performance of personal computers has continued to improve since being introduced to the market. Along with the improvements in performance, there has been an increase in the type of applications in which the personal computers are used. Several new applications involve a merger between computing and communications environments.
Originally, the connection of personal computers to telephones created a connectivity problem due to the somewhat isolated development of computing and communications systems. Motivated by the need to create a connection between personal computers and other devices, the Universal Serial Bus Specification (USB Specification) was developed to facilitate interconnectivity. The USB Specification provided an industry standard to enable devices from different vendors to interoperate in an open architecture. The resulting connections from the USB Specification created a ubiquitous link that can be used across a wide range of interconnects at data transfer rates of 12 Mb/s, also known as full-speed, and 1.5 Mb/s.
While the USB Specification did create a flexible connection for keyboards, pointing devices, joysticks, etc., personal computing peripherals have continued to add more performance and functionality. For example, the use of digital imaging demands a high performance connection between the personal computer and the increasingly sophisticated peripherals.
In order to address the demand for improved performance, the industry developed the Universal Serial Bus Specification Revision 2.0 (USB 2.0 Specification). The USB 2.0 Specification addressed the need for higher performance by adding a third data transfer rate of 480 Mb/s, also known as high-speed, to the originally defined data transfer rates of the earlier USB Specification. The new standard has delivered the desired bandwidth increase while preserving the original motivations for the USB Specification and maintaining full compatibility with existing peripherals.
A USB 2.0 connection, however, may not always operate at high-speed. One reason could be due to a flawed cable that degrades signal quality to the point that the cable can no longer support a high-speed operation. The USB 2.0 connection may also be unable to support a high-speed operation due to internal bus traffic that reduces the process speed of information.
Presently, there are some operating systems that produce a warning to users when there is a problem with a peripheral connection. Typically, this warning simply alerts the user that there is not a connection. A user may want to know, however, if the data transfer rate of a particular connection is at full-speed or high-speed. Presently, in order to detect what data transfer rate is being used at a connection, a user must use an oscilloscope to test the connection and obtain the data transfer rate. Alternatively, a user may utilize a bus analyzer to interrogate the connection to determine the data transfer rate.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a device that enables a user to detect the data transfer rate associated with connections such as that of a Universal Serial Bus connection.